Tyler Cowen’s new book

My colleague Tyler Cowen sent along his new book and I’m quite enjoying the read so far. It’s made more interesting by the fact that, having known Tyler for more than a decade, many of the ideas in the book are clearly manifested in Tyler the person–his encyclopedic knowledge of DC area ethnic restaurants comes to mind.

The tag-line of the title “The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World” pretty much conveys the problem and hints at the solution I think. Clearly Cowen is a master-user of the net (at least among us adults born before the Web). As interesting is his notion that small-bits of culture (think i-tune single versus CD album) are equally enriching. I’m not sure that I buy that–although I fully understand his economic argument.
Jim

Innovation

My colleague and friend Chris Hill (not the diplomat) has a new piece here. In it he posits the demise of an innovation society based primarily on science and technology. I think Chris is dead wrong, but it’s an interesting challenge for those of us who come from the Vannevar Bush tradition.

Money quote from Hill’s article:

Just as the post-industrial society continues to require the products of agriculture and manufacturing for its effective functioning, so too will the post-scientific society continue to require the results of advanced scientific and engineering research. Nevertheless, the leading edge of innovation in the post-scientific society, whether for business, industrial, consumer, or public purposes, will move from the workshop, the laboratory, and the office to the studio, the think tank, the atelier, and cyberspace.

Jim

Whale brains and cognition

Reading Charles Sibert’s wonderful article in yesterday’s Sunday NYT Magazine, I was reminded by my own encounter with an Orca on the north shore of San Juan Island close to twenty years ago. I had been told that if I showed up at the rocky outcropping around 10 in the morning, I’d run into a pod of the huge creatures face to face.

This was no exaggeration. Pretty much exactly on time, I was face-to-face with a huge intelligent eye gazing across the species barrier. It’s a moment I’ve never forgotten. Read the entire article. The end is the most moving.
So how smart are whales? I think that’s a very interesting question. Certainly the fact that they possess the spindle neurons that humans and the great apes also have makes the question neurobiologically relevant.
Jim

University of California feels the pain

ScienceInsider has the details of the latest combination of cuts and furloughs proposed for our colleagues at UC here. It’s not a pretty story. Many of us consider the UC system to be the premier public university in the United States. It can’t stay that way for long if the great state of California doesn’t figure out some way to address its structural budget problems (which long pre-date the current crisis in my opinion). As a California native, and with many friends as faculty in the system, I really feel their pain.

Jim

Junuary–when June meets Cape Cod weather

That’s what they call June in Woods Hole because it’s usually pretty rainy and chilly. The ideal weather really starts in July but carries through late October.

Tomorrow I’m off to Woods Hole for a short trip. This summer I’m proud to report that the Krasnow Institute, young as it is, has its third generation in residence. One of our neuroscience Ph.D. Students is taking the MBL’s Neural Systems and Behavior Course.
I’m going to be meeting tomorrow with MBL’s Chief Academic and Science Officer, Josh Hamilton, about our century-plus year old journal, The Biological Bulletin, which just reported it’s fourth straight year of increased impact factor.